CHILDREN'S
Released: Jan. 1, 2011
"A poignant and quiet tale in which the only special effect is love—refreshing. (author's note) (Fiction. 13 & up)"
CHILDREN'S
Released: Dec. 14, 2010
"Ambitious and thought-provoking, if flawed. (Fiction. 12 & up)"
CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 7, 2010
"Teen readers will see both themselves and their friends in Bianca's layered, hostile world. (Fiction. 12 & up)"
Downing Cherry Cokes and watching her two best friends hoof it out on the dance floor of the local teen club doesn't make 17-year-old Bianca Piper feel good about herself.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: June 1, 2010
"Ninjas can divide by zero," the cast sings while flinging food-coloring-and-corn-syrup blood at the audience, and both Cass and readers laugh through tears. (Fiction. 12-16)"
Cass doesn't really think a cross-country bike trip will make her best friend Julia any less dead, but it will get her away from reformed bully Heather, who tormented Julia all through middle school.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 1, 2009
"Beautiful language magically wrought; beautiful storytelling magically told. (Fantasy. 12 & up)"
An unexpected reimagining of the Cinderella tale, exquisite and pristine, unfolding deliberately.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Jan. 1, 2009
"Still, as the title implies, the author definitely knows how to write romance, and that should help readers overlook some of the cheesier bits. (Fiction. YA)"
Sparks fly when cheerleading it-girl Brittany Ellis is paired with gang-banger bad-boy Alex Fuentes in chemistry lab.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 11, 2008
"Contemporary culture, humorous romantic developments and strong characters enhance this collaborative effort. (Fiction. 11-16)"
Three top authors of teen fiction join forces for a collection of linked novellas set in the same small town in North Carolina on Christmas Eve.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Feb. 1, 2008
"Zarr transfixes teen readers with enticing explorations of identity and enduring love. (Fiction. YA)"
After years working to achieve popularity, Jenna tries not to think about elementary school: the lisp, the tears, the fat.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 31, 2006
"This quasi-Romeo and Juliet will easily find its place alongside Sharon Mills Draper's Romiette and Julio (1999), Myers's short story, "Kitty and Mack: a Love Story," West Side Story and of course, the Shakespearean play itself. (Fiction. YA)"
Adult and young-adult aficionados of Myers's work will find this new offering revisits issues close to the author's heart: place (Harlem with all its love and squalor), race and the court system (you've got trouble if you're black and poor and in front of a judge), values for boys of color (street crime or achievement) and love of the community.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: May 23, 2006
"Sensual and full of texture. (Fiction. YA)"
The wattage goes way up as two of the bright lights of contemporary writing for teens come together for an incandescent he said/she said night of storytelling.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 9, 2003
"With wry humor, wickedly quirky and yet real characters, and real situations, this is a must for any library serving teens. (Fiction. YA)"
Somewhere on the eastern coast of the US that's home to Francesca Lia Block's Los Angeles is a town where six-foot-five drag queens play high-school football, kindergarten teachers write comments like "Definitely gay and has a very good sense of self" on student report cards, quiz-bowl teams are as important as football teams, and cheerleaders ride Harleys.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 1, 1998
"Miah's melodramatic death overshadows a tale as rich in social and personal insight as any of Woodson's previous books. (Fiction. 11-13)"
In a meditative interracial love story with a wrenching climactic twist, Woodson (The House You Pass on the Way, 1997, etc.) offers an appealing pair of teenagers and plenty of intellectual grist, before ending her story with a senseless act of violence.
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